Board 8 > Johnbobb ranks user-nominated Villain Songs: Requiem - The Ranking

(+) Yeah! (+)

redrocket posted...

Im a fan of unorthodox/weird/cartoony voices myself, but I understand thats a niche taste.

I mean I think they definitely have their purpose within animated media itself, but at the same time those voices just don't always translate well musically

Yeah, I did specifically mean within music. Thats why I said it was niche.

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93. This Is the Thanks I Get
Source: Wish
Villain: King Magnifico
Nominator: PrinceKaro (1 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFmrzhuVOts

Villainy: 3
Characterization: 4
Melody: 2
Total: 9/30

"See this kingdom? I built it up / And you still complain? Ungrateful much?"

Sorry Karo, again, but this one almost feels like it was aiming low, given that it's a song that quite literally went viral earlier this yaer for how uninspired it is compared to typical Disney songs.

Chris Pine is a great singer (his rendition of Agony with Billy Magnussen from Into the Woods is a go-to favorite), but you can barely tell here. I think they tried to capitalize on how big You're Welcome got a few years back by trying to replicate that song's mix of upbeat vocals slipping in and out of quips. The problem is that where that felt like it had personality, this just feels bland, so the quipping is less fun and more forced.

Also, seriously, who wrote this? "Ungrateful much? Mm, are you sure that you're not the prob?" I haven't seen Wish, is part of his character arc being the Steve Buscemi "how do you do fellow kids" type? It does do a decent enough job explaining its villain at least. Magnifico is clearly powerful and cocky about it, emphasizing how humble and gracious he is, but there is definite malice underneath it as he begins to talk about the traitor. There's obvious potential here, which only makes it more disappointing.

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92. Stronger Than You
Source: Memoire/Soreperior/Milkychan (Undertale fansong)
Villain: Chara
Nominator: Dancedreamer (2 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=co5Zo6Ng9-c

Villainy: 5
Characterization: 3
Melody: 1
Total: 9/30

"You know I made your friends all disappear / Erasing all what's left, this is why I'm here"

Hey, remember a few songs back, with the cover of an existing song that only really existed to be worse than the original? That still applies here, but at least it's customized to the character this time! However, it's customized in a similar way to Bowsette, where it feels more about making references to the game than it is about really developing the character. So you get mentions of Determination and a very literal description of the in-game fight, but it doesn't go all that much deeper.

I do have to give it points for being evil, at least the most we've seen so far. Around 5-6 I think is where we start to see the real villainy peeking through beyond general dickishness, with Chara very clearly being DETERMINED (ha, get it) to kill Sans. As for the song itself... it's not great. This is just a fansong that went through too many steps, already starting as a semi-niche fandom song, then being made into an instrumental cover, then being made 8-bit, and THEN having lyrics added. Everything is just kind of jumbled together here without any real cohesion, and it doesn't help that Milkychan, while she's not terrible, is definitely no Estelle.

Don't apologize, I literally nominated it so it would be shit upon.

Wish's soundtrack is so awful and phoned in

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91. The Phony King of England
Source: Robin Hood
Villain: Prince John
Nominator: Great_Paul (3 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCPSgC9LE4s

Villainy: 3
Characterization: 3
Melody: 3
Total: 9/30

"While he taxes us to pieces / And he robs us of our bread / King Richard's crown keeps slippin' down / Around that pointed head"

Group songs about a villain are tricky. They CAN be great villain songs when done properly. Gaston is a pretty famous one, where Gaston himself is only supporting singer, and it's mostly being sung about him. It gets even trickier when the song doesn't actually involve the villain directly though. Is being a rich, greedy tyrant villainous? Absolutely! But when it's shown from an outside perspective like this, it's hard to take it literally. Most of the song is openly mocking him in ways that are meant to exaggerate how much they dislike him, which by its nature puts a sort of fog over any specific characterization of John himself.

As a song? It's alright. It's a short, upbeat tune that isn't really trying to be anything all that special. Phil Harris is very distinctly known for being a favorite when it comes to early Disney songs, being the vocalist that made Bear Necessities and Everybody Wants to Be a Cat such timeless hits. The Phony King of England never really hits that point. I'll also be completely honest when I say the sound quality of the recording isn't doing it any favors. That's easily worth overlooking when the song itself is great, but for something like this it just drags it down a little more.

I kinda don't want to see Wish even more now after I watched an analysis video of why the villain song fails so hard.

I didn't know any of the ones so far but they are all rough

"I let you live here for free, and I don't even charge you rent." Well, yeah. That's how living for free works, Magnifico!

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90. Painful Acres
Source: The Brak Show
Villain: Zorak (as Norman Bates)
Nominator: Fluttershy_Pony (3 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhVf36-ryzU

Villainy: 6
Characterization: 2
Melody: 2
Total: 10/30

"See my silhouette through the curtain / Why I'm wearing a dress is uncertain"

Ranking the villainy of this song is tricky and I'm still not sure I ultimately did it the best way? The problem here is that Norman Bates is obviously a 10/10 in basically any context and this is literally a song sung from the perspective of Norman Bates, who is killing someone. The problem though is that this isn't Norman Bates, it's another character playing Norman Bates, in a very neutral way. Zorak himself here would probably get, what, a 1? But then again, really any character is just a character being played by someone else. I ended up kinda splitting the difference, favoring slightly higher than lower given that it is, again, directly about murdering someone.

That being said, this is barely a song. It's a 40-second quick gag about what a Psycho musical would look like. It doesn't actually tell you anything about Zorak other than he has a weirdly good singing voice and he's playing Norman Bates.

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89. Tales of Villain
Source: HANABIE.
Villain: Ursula
Nominator: Murphiroth (2 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVflWhzRfP0

Villainy: 3
Characterization: 5
Melody: 2
Total: 10/30

"I breathe in all I can, even the echoes / Until that voice withers away"

This is absolutely not my thing, and it's also pretty much the musical polar opposite from the MLP and Littlest Pet Shop songs dropping like 5 spots ago. I like the chorus vocals! But only enough to boost this a single point from the screaming throughout the rest of the song. I don't care for this type of music in English and hearing it in Japanese doesn't change anything.

As far as villainy goes, this is the same score I gave the OTHER Ursula song last contest, although that one ranked considerably higher. Ursula is a tragic figure. There's obviously manipulation going on, and she's clearly not guiltless in that, but the song focuses on being lonely, wanting to be loved and wanting to be acknowledged. While that doesn't do much to tip the villain scale, it does help to characterize her, at least just enough that looking at the lyrics I could say to myself "oh, that's Ursula" without it ever mentioning her name.

Hooray no bottom 10! Expecting 2 reccos in the bottom half and hopefully Spanish Train does well

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88. BEST FRIENDS FOREVER
Source: Undertale Yellow
Villain: Flowey
Nominator: Murphiroth (2 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR8HNLxHz_4

Villainy: 1
Characterization: 2
Melody: 7
Total: 10/30

*creepy 8-bit noises overlaid with aggressive... what genre would you call this?*

Here we have the second and last instrumental track. I'll say it again, a boss fight theme is not the same thing as a villain song. This gets the tiniest point for characterization over the other instrumental track, as this does actually provide some sort of characterization in the form of tone. It's not just an action track, it's fast-paced action mixed with sinister creepiness and glitching noise. It's about the most I can see giving to an instrumental track here, though I'd love to be proven wrong. Still can't give it anything for villainy though, because there's nothing villainous happening in the song. It's just music.

That being said, this rocks. I've never heard of Undertale Yellow before this, but usually fansongs or, in this case, songs from fangames don't fare all that well here musically, as they're often just offshoots of existing stuff that only serves to make you wish you were listening to the originals (last time's big exception being Stained, Brutal Calamity from Terraria Calamity which goes ungodly hard). This doesn't ever give me that perception though; it takes a small, recognizable tune from the original game and creates something new simply using it as a base.

I had a feeling that HANABIE. wouldn't be your thing but I had to throw in a song from them since they're one of my favorite modern bands and they happened to have a fitting song.

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87. I'm Gonna Kick Your Ass
Source: The Brak Show
Villain: Zorak
Nominator: Fluttershy_Pony (2 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-P6EolKb90

Villainy: 4
Characterization: 2
Melody: 4
Total: 10/30

"Why don't you bend that back load over / Hold it steady / Zorak's ready"

I was honestly shocked to see that this wasn't Jonathan Coulter, it both sounds like his voice and like a song he would write. I can definitely justify putting this a little over the last Zorak given this is legitimately something resembling a real song. It's still very short and sweet and kind of forgettable overall, but I still enjoyed it for what it was.

The extent of the villainy here is obvious, so thank you for making my job a little easier. The title tells you pretty much all you need to know about the villainy. He wants to kick your ass. He likes to kick ass, and he is going to do so to you, making your ass the ass he has most recently kicked. That's also about the full extent you learn about Zorak here, so I can't really boost it much higher than this.

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86. Freestyle Bane
Source: Auralnauts (The Dark Knight Rises fansong)
Villain: Bane
Nominator: Jesse_Custer (2 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLFAXvFYhsE

Villainy: 8
Characterization: 2
Melody: 1
Total: 11/30

"When I say no, you say survivors / No / ..."

There was zero chance of this ever getting points from me musically. This is a guy doing a silly-voiced rendition of a character that is famous for having a silly muffled voice. Like Tom Hardy's Bane is famous, above all else, for not having a musically pleasant voice. It's clearly a joke song, but it's really not easy for joke songs to do well here.

Really, the only reason Freestyle Bane escaped the bottom 10 is because of the undeniable villainy score. Was that what you were aiming for when nominating? I mean the song literally ends with "Kill them all," there is quite literally no way I could justify dropping the villainy any lower than this. For all it repeats "I'm Bane, yes, that's my name," it doesn't really tell you much of anything about Bane beyond the fact that he's violent, just on a bigger scale than I'm Gonna Kick Your Ass.

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85. Scrooge
Source: The Muppets Christmas Carol
Villain: Ebeneezer Scrooge
Nominator: wallmasterz (3 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULaNvmjZWxg

Villainy: 4
Characterization: 4
Melody: 3
Total: 11/30

"Don't ask him for a favor cause his nastiness increases / No crust of bread for those in need / No cheeses for us meeces"

I feel like this might be where I start to actually upset people with the drops, because basically everyone loves The Muppets. This one falls where it is for largely the same reasons as The Phony King of England. It's cute in a "look at the silly singing mice puppets" but it's still not, by itself, all that good of a song. High-pitched goofy voices work to establish that a character is meant to be cartoony, but they don't often translate into something that is a great song on its own merit out of the context of its scene.

Also like The Phony King of England, it's not a song by Scrooge, but a song about him, so any characterization of him gets a shade of grey thrown over it because the song itself is pretty mean spirited. "Look close and there must be a sweet man inside... Nah!" It limits how much it tells you about him or the things he's done in favor of focusing on how people in the town revile him. That being said, what it does say specifically that he's done, like gouging the housing market to make people choose between shoddy overpriced homes or no home at all, is pretty awful.

Johnbobb posted...

I feel like this might be where I start to actually upset people

Yes - too low!

There goes Mr. Asshole
There goes Mr. Bitch

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84. I've Got a Little List
Source: Family Guy
Villain: Stewie Griffin
Nominator: GansEvans123 (2 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GbCX7eJWm8

Villainy: 7
Characterization: 3
Melody: 2
Total: 12/30

"There's the guy who sits beside you and keeps farting on the plane / And Shakira's lyricist / I've got him on the list"

Look, I swear I don't just hate parody songs, but this was just lame. The majority of the references here are already so dated (I mean, jokes about Britney Spears' wardrobe malfunction from I don't know how long ago?) that it feels like it wasn't intended to have staying power. And the title really is all the song is; it's a list of people that cause very minor annoyances. .

So what does it tell you about Stewie, the villain in question? Well, it tells you about his taste in people (although they really just come across as Seth McFarlane's own personal annoyances). He's short-tempered and willing to take extreme measures over petty grievances. That's not exactly deep character development, but it definitely is villainous, especially given the context of this being an actual dedicated plan and not just basic daydreaming about wanting to kill annoying people.

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83. Playing with the Big Boys
Source: The Prince of Egypt
Villain: Hotep and Huy
Nominator: wallmasterz (2 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLomnZIvoFs

Villainy: 4
Characterization: 4
Melody: 4
Total: 12/30

"By the might of Horus / You will kneel before us / Kneel to our splendorous power"

You know, I actually really dig this song when Martin and Martin aren't singing. The priests chanting the names of Egptian gods while the horns are rising really gives a dark, sinister vibe that really captures the heaviness that the scene appears to be going for. Unfortunately, the actual singers didn't seem to get that message, as repeating "You're playing with the big boys now" over and over and over isn't exactly dark and threatening.

That's not to say there arent threats being made here though. In the brief moments that Hotep and Huy can refrain from repeating their catchphrase. Hotep and Huy are arrogant, at first in a way that just feels mocking, but gradually developing into an ending threat that unless Moses kneels before them and recognizes their significance over him, it'll be his end.

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82. Jackal Style
Source: The Lion Guard
Villain: Reirei
Nominator: PrinceKaro (0 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLomnZIvoFs

Villainy: 4
Characterization: 4
Melody: 4
Total: 12/30

"Don't gather food or build a home / There's plenty here for us to take / Working hard might be good for others / But we get by just being fake"

And we already have our first elimination, but I'll admit this one wasn't terrible. It works mostly because Reirei does a great job with the vocals here, showing range that helps to give flavor to the more repetitive instrumentals. So basically the exact opposite of the last ranking! It does feel a little kiddie for my tastes at times, but at least that works thematically, as Reirei is quite literally singing the song to very young children.

And ultimately, that gave it a small bump in villainy too. It's definitely not like over-the-top evil, focusing mostly on succeeding through cunning and kinda being a little dickish about it. Overall I'd say that lands this at a 3, if not for the fact that she's teaching a whole younger generation that being nice is only useful for getting what you want. I'm guessing the greater implication here is about teaching the kids to be carnivores, which might've bumped it up a little farther, but those implications are a little too heavy for the song to be willing to address directly, which ultimately holds it back.

you got the prince of egypt video in that post just fyi

Oh whoops!

Too late to edit but here's the video:

https://youtu.be/rJptP7iILEc

ignore that, accidentally skipped 81

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81. Love Psych
Source: Neil Cicierega
Villain: Fred Schneider of the B-52s
Nominator: Place (1 left)

https://youtu.be/HlqXtXOvo9Q

Villainy: 4
Characterization: 2
Melody: 6
Total: 12/30

"Huggin' and a-kissin', dancin' and a-lovin' / Wearin' next to nothin' 'cause it's hot as an oven"

Well this one was a challenge.

I love Neil Cicierega, and I've tried to do mashups before as a fun little side-hobby that I never quite got good at, and it's largely inspired by his ability to make something hilarious out of something that was never intended to be. It's very weird to hear such incredibly different songs fit together so well, but they do. Is it something I'd listen to regularly? Not really, but I definitely enjoy it in the moment.

But as a villain song? I mean, I just have no idea what to do with it. It's not even a cover, just a song about consensual sex in the love shack, made eerily sinisted by swapping the instrumentals for the theme from Psycho. So what does it tell you about the singer? That he wants to have sex, in a shack. And that's extremely villainous if this is like a "take someone to a shack and lock them in there" kind of scenario. But is that what it is? It's very slightly implied to be, but only because the instrumentals are sinister in tone and the lyrics were weird to begin with. Then again, nobody is ever going to listen to Love Shack and think "wow this guy is evil." So it's either very villainous, or not at all, and on this one I'm leaning a little lower on the split-the-difference side.

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80. Run, Pig, Run
Source: Queens of the Stone Age
Villain: Josh Homme, I guess?
Nominator: MarkS2222222225 (3 left)

https://youtu.be/HlqXtXOvo9Q

Villainy: 4
Characterization: 2
Melody: 6
Total: 12/30

"I am no saint and make no claims to being in the right / It's just for now, I am wrong-less"

I kind of go back and forth on how I feel about Queens of the Stone Age. I used to not care for them at all, then Them Crooked Vultures premiered and it convicned me to give QotSA another shot, and I definitely liked them more than I used to. I still feel like the vocal mixing here is a little odd and I can't really seeing it being a go-to for me, but I did start to dig this song the more I listened to it. Super solid riff work and I love the breakdown toward the end.

The aesthetics are all there to try and create a menacing, threatening vibe. The problem with it as a villain song is that it's all very vague, and the most vague thing about it is who it's supposed to be from the perspective of. Like I try to get context for all songs I listen to for this, and as far as I can tell there isn't any (hence Josh Homme is listed as the villain, simply because he's singing). Like there's definitely something threatening going on; if we take the lyrics literally, the singer is chasing or hunting down someone with ill intent, but that's about as far as we can go with it.

need to doublecheck your videos again

Johnbobb posted...

The problem with it as a villain song is that it's all very vague, and the most vague thing about it is who it's supposed to be from the perspective of. Like I try to get context for all songs I listen to for this, and as far as I can tell there isn't any (hence Josh Homme is listed as the villain, simply because he's singing). Like there's definitely something threatening going on; if we take the lyrics literally, the singer is chasing or hunting down someone with ill intent, but that's about as far as we can go with it.

I didn't catch this for a long time either, but the context is revealed in the very last word of the last verse:

"I want to play the game you missed"

So the person he's chasing is someone that missed the game he played when he was young (that he describes in the beginning), presumably a parent or someone else that was missing from his childhood.

PrinceKaro posted...

need to doublecheck your videos again

dang it how do I keep doing that

Love Psych:

https://youtu.be/Xx5IUyg9whQ

MarkS2222222222 posted...

I didn't catch this for a long time either, but the context is revealed in the very last word of the last verse:

"I want to play the game you missed"

So the person he's chasing is someone that missed the game he played when he was young (that he describes in the beginning), presumably a parent or someone else that was missing from his childhood.

oh that's such a good catch! Genius.com let me down

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79. Your Mind Is Not Your Friend
Source: The National ft. Phoebe Bridgers
Villain: Mental Health Disorders
Nominator: Chaeix (2 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrCTNeuvmqA

Villainy: 1
Characterization: 5
Melody: 6
Total: 12/30

"You feel it in your nerves / It's chokin' out the sun / You try in vain to be persuaded / That it's nothin'"

I like this song a good bit, but I legitimately don't think I can call it a villain song. This song isn't really about the mental health disorders being characterized as a villain beyond a line or two, it's about a person dealing with mental health struggles. Unless this was something like Inside Out, it doesn't really make sense to me to recognize the concept of the mental health as the subject of the song. It's really just a very sad song, not a villainous one.

That being said, it's a good song! The vocals are subtle and the whole thing is very melodic and moody in a way that somehow only makes it sadder. I do like the way it characterizes the protagonist of the song, although it does admittedly also do it in a slightly vague way, assumedly to try and make it feel relateable to whoever's listening to it.

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78. Rest In Peace
Source: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Villain: Spike
Nominator: CoolCly (2 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrsKWzC4WxE

Villainy: 1
Characterization: 7
Melody: 4
Total: 12/30

"You can't tell the ones you love / You know they couldn't deal / Whisper in a dead man's ear / It doesn't make it real"

If you listen to the song, it's better quality on Spotify than it is on YouTube. So, if I heard this song without any context from the show (which I kind of am in a way, as I've never actually watched Buffy) I would never have assumed Spike was a villain. If anything, he comes across as a tragic figure. He's dead, literally as a vampire and metaphorically as someone who feels empty. Buffy, who he's in love with, makes him feel alive (metaphorically, he's still a vampire literally), but even though she continually returns to him she never returns his affections, despite him feeling it's obvious she feels them. The idea of "I love you, and I know you love me back, but if you won't admit it then leave me be so I can get over you," is about the least villainous sentiment I've heard from a villain.

It's great characterization, but how is the song? Eh. I mean, I really like the vibe of it, but it's desperately in need of some better mixing and rhythmic variety to really compete here. It's like very close to being a great song, but it almost feels like a first attempt in a lot of ways rather than a finished product. And James Marsters is not a great singer.

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77. Robot Hell
Source: Futurama
Villain: Robot Devil
Nominator: GavsEvans124 (1 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OQjVdrZfZE

Villainy: 6
Characterization: 4
Melody: 2
Total: 12/30

"Fencing diamonds, fixing cockfights / Publishing indecent magazines / You'll pay for every crime / Knee-deep in electric slime"

Robot Hell is a very fun song. Is it a good song? Eh, not really. There are five different singers in this song, and having the Beastie Boys as themselves don't make up for the other four. It's hard to explain (at least with me not having much actual knowledge of music theory), but the lyrics don't seem to match up to the rhythm, with the weirdly emphasized meter and the voice singers (Robot Devil, primarily) seeming to struggle to keep up with the tempo.

It is fun though, and serves as a solid introduction to the Robot Devil. He likes to torture sinners, and takes specific enjoyment in thinking of creative ways to do so. It's not the deepest portrayal of the devil ever, but the back and forth shooting down Bender's complaints adds to it. It's another one that falls in the middle as far as evil goes; yes, he likes to torture robots, but he does so mostly as punishment for the crimes those robots have personally done, not just randomly out of malice, and the tortures he suggests are particularly cartoonish and silly.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f2672f68.jpg

76. Meet the Plastics
Source: Mean Girls (2024)
Villain: Meet the Plastics
Nominator: ScareChan (3 left)

https://youtu.be/FZ49-hdoNeA

Villainy: 3
Characterization: 4
Melody: 5
Total: 12/30

"I'm the prettiest poison you've ever seen / That filter you use looks just like me"

It was mentioned in the nomination topic, but it really is wild that in the song "Meet the Plastics," the film cut out the parts of two of the three plastics. It's goes from being the big introductory villain song of the popular girls to basically a soliloquy. I mean, what's here is great; Renee Rapp is undeniably a great singer and the instrumentals are so aggressive. Ultimately, it just feels incomplete though, more like a reprise than a song in itself. I enjoyed what was there but really wanted more.

We get a pretty basic introduction to Regina here, giving the audience an idea of what to expect. She's attractive, rich, arrogant and mean. More than that, everyone seems to recognize it too. It's hard to call it an evil song, since about the meanest thing she says is "I don't care how you feel." That's not quite enough to move the meter compared to the villains we have here.

I have never heard Robot Hell before, and I wish it could have stayed that way

Actual meet the plastics does a better job of setting up regina as a villain... in gretchen's verse that was cut.

One left for me. I don't see It's Our House Now lasting much longer, because it's not particularly villainous, and characterization is difficult in a group song like that.

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75. It's Our House Now
Source: Mickey's House of Villains
Villain: The Disney Villains
Nominator: GavsEvans126 (0 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVgz89OAd3Y

Villainy: 5
Characterization: 3
Melody: 4
Total: 12/30

"Join the fun with no regrets / Only greedy, dirty deeds are allowed!"

...sorry Gavs. I do hate to drop this one so low, because it has a lot of nostalgia for me. I used to watched a lot of House of Mouse as a kid, and when House of Villains happened, it felt like a pretty huge deal. The bits of seeing all these characters interact together was the majority of the appeal of House of Mouse, so seeing all the villains, villains from generations of movies, coming together at once was a blast.

The only trouble is like you said, it's not the kind of song that's made to perform well in this kind of contest. Because you only get small snippets of each character, there's not much time to really develop any of the characters. It does an effective job with what it can, giving you brief ideas of a lot of different characters at once. And it's decently villainous; there's very clear malice present, even though the levels of villainy are all over the place, from simply celebrating to Queen of Hearts' classic "off with their heads."

As for the song itself, it's badly in need of a remaster, though that's of course never going to happen. There's just so much happening in this song, it's frankly surprising they managed to make it as distinguishable as they did. That being said, it's still a little bit of a mess. A fun mess, but a mess.

Oh cool, my nominations avoided the bottom quarter.

I was really hoping all my noms made top 75, juuuust missed it.

Alas I should have take FD's demand into consideration

For what it's worth, I think what's there in the 2024 version sounds better than the same section in the boradway soundtrack

I just wish it was a full song

Yeah, I didn't think it'd be high on the villain score, but it does a good job I think of setting up a sultry vibe that could be leaned into, and a good setup for her other solo song that I nominated.

Your analysis of Spike's characterization is spot on, both in everything about his feelings and its level of villainy. It really isn't so much of a villain song so much as a song utilizing a villain, but still felt appropriate to throw in here. I'm sure you already know that the other song I nominated from the episode was the real villain of the hour.

Though I would note, in comparison to most of the songs from the episode, Rest In Peace does have a more villainous tinge to it. It just wouldn't stand out for that reason in a sea of villain songs!

Hoping for that Oscars bump for I'm Just Ken

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a52fa708.jpg

74. Peaches
Source: The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Villain: Bowser
Nominator: Great_Paul (2 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imSefM4GPpE

Villainy: 2
Characterization: 3
Melody: 7
Total: 12/30

"Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches / Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches, Peaches"

Ugh, this one feels wrong to have so low, but under my own rules I just can't really justify putting it higher. This song is a huge sensation for a reason, beyond just being a very recognizable character starring in a massively popular movie. Jack Black is great as Bowser, and Peaches really captures that intersection between his own musical talent and the goofy, princess-capturing style of Bowser. This serves as a great example for some of the songs below it of how to maintain a goofy character voice while not letting it bring down the vocal quality. Even though it is very short, it's great.

But it also tells us barely nothing. Bowser is in love with Peach. And, uh, that's about it. He namedrops Mario and Donkey Kong, and mentions a desire to rule, but that's the full extent of his characterization. It's super slim, and not overall villainous. It's pretty clearly a love song. The closet thing we get to villainy from the song itself is "I'll make you mine," which only sounds villainous because we know it's Bowser and that he kidnaps princesses, but calling the song itself villainous because of that is a huge stretch.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/9918a666.jpg

73. This Day Aria
Source: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Villain: Queen Chrysalis
Nominator: Bitto (2 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzsxfO7dBlA

Villainy: 4
Characterization: 4
Melody: 5
Total: 13/30

"No, I do not love the groom / In my heart there is no room / But I still want him to be all mine"

Frankly this is higher than I expected an MLP song to get, and it's not even the highest of the three nominated! I do generally like the classic opposing viewpoint duet style; it usually makes for a good song and provides some much needed context, as it makes Chrysalis sound a little more sinister when you know she's not just marrying someone she doesn't like, but intentionally taking away that chance from someone who is in love.

By the way, context was absolutely needed here, as it took me like 3 listens to realize that Shining Armor was the name of a character and that she wasn't just going through the wedding to get some literal shining armor (which on first listen I assumed was some MLP object of power or royalty, like a crown or throne or something).

Both singers do decent work here. It's not like a wildly impressive or memorable song for me, but there's also not very much for me to complain about in that department. It even gives you a little characterization in displaying the queen as greedy, manipulative and power-hungry, even if it doesn't really make clear her actual motivations for doing everything. Yes, she wants Shining Armor, the horse, not the item, but why? (that's rhetorical please don't actually explain the plot of MLP to me)

Johnbobb posted...

74. Peaches

Man, this makes me wish I'd nominated Ignorance is Bliss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xdwze-Wj6_4

Probably wouldn't have done as well as Peaches, but wanting to bash Mario with a monkey wrench and turn Dinosaur Land into fossil fuel should be worth a couple villainy points. </.<

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/2f8b49d6.png

72. I'm Alive
Source: Next to Normal
Villain: Gabe Goodman
Nominator: Inviso (3 left)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAhgX7RleDQ

Villainy: 2
Characterization: 8
Melody: 3
Total: 13/30

"But I'm alive, I'm alive, I am so alive / And I feed on the fear that's behind your eyes"

Hey, remember a handful of songs ago, where the villain was basically just "mental health disorders?" Well Gabe is largely that same villain, only thankfully easier to characterize here. In just this brief 3 minutes, Gabe manages to establish himself as a pretty fascinating character, not just to the audience, but to Diana (the character being sung to). The whole idea behind the song, that he's alive, when he quite literally isn't, immediately gets listener to think. I mean even without seeing the play, this song tells you 1. Gabe is dead (Cause if you won't grieve me you won't leave me behind), 2. Gabe is being seen by someone who doesn't understand why they're seeing him (If I'm a simple spirit or I'm flesh and blood) and 3. Gabe, as a manifestation of the target's mind, is tormenting them (I feed on the fear that's behind your eyes).

As far as the song itself... it's fine. I can see it being a big moment of the show, but I've heard a lot of Broadway musical songs and this is just kind of one of them; out of the context of the greater show it's not one I'd really go out of my way to listen to. It also falls into the weird zone as Your Mind Is Not Your Friend; it's hard to really call Gabe a villain when he's just a manifestation; the song makes it pretty clear that this is really Diana's own mind being mean to her rather than Gabe being an actual ghost that wishes to harm her.

Fluttershy_Pony posted...

Man, this makes me wish I'd nominated Ignorance is Bliss:

well it definitely would've done worse in its melody than Peaches but might've beaten it in the other two categories!

I'm Alive is the only song I truly enjoy from that musical (much like Revenge Party from Mean Girls).